After judges threaten action, Richmond moves to assess aging court building

Following a show cause order sent by the Richmond Circuit Court judges threatening legal action, Richmond City Council approved a resolution on June 8 to form a panel to address next steps for the aging John Marshall Courts Building — including a possible $300 million replacement building.

The resolution is the latest step in a long-running back-and-forth between City Council and the Richmond Circuit Court about the dilapidated conditions at the courthouse, which has been in use since the mid-1970s.

According to a February 2025 letter from the Richmond Circuit Court judges, the courthouse faces water leaks from an aging roof, near-daily sewage leaks onto carpets and court records, security concerns due to the building’s design and infrastructure — including having to route criminal defendants through judges’ chambers — and ADA compliance issues.

In the letter, Richmond Circuit Court Chief Judge Jacqueline S. McClenney and the other judges of the Richmond Circuit Court warned the city the court may take legal action if maintenance and security concerns at the downtown courthouse were not addressed.

“This court has demonstrated a patience that cannot and will not continue indefinitely,” the judges wrote in their 2025 letter. “If a locality fails to take action, the court has an obligation to take action.”

By May, that patience seemed to have run out.

On May 6, the Richmond Circuit Court filed a show cause order against each member of Richmond City Council, compelling the body to show cause “why a mandamus should not issue, commanding them to cause the Court Facilities to be made secure, put in good repair, and rendered otherwise safe, and to cause the necessary work to be done.”

The order was signed by McClenney and Richmond Circuit Court Clerk Edward F. Jewett.

Councilor Reva Trammell revealed at the end of the city council’s May 11 meeting that the members had been served the show cause order, which she said “was a shock” to her.

“Now we’re hearing that they need $300 million because they want that courthouse, and to me they should get that courthouse,” Trammell said, adding that it is “very disturbing and alarming” that plans to fix the courthouse situation had not moved forward.

City Council President Cynthia Newbille said at the meeting that it is “a legal matter” to be discussed between Richmond Mayor Danny Avula’s administration and the city attorney.

The resolution, Res. No. 2026-R023, was adopted unanimously at the council meeting in the council’s consent agenda. It establishes a five-member panel consistent with Va. Code § 15.2-1643 to “review the Court Facilities and make recommendations in accordance with such statute.”

The panel’s members will be selected from a group of seven candidates recommended to city council by Newbille, City Council Vice President Katherine Jordan and Richmond Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald II.

The Richmond Circuit Court, Newbille and Jordan all either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

In a statement, Avula’s office said “we’re working with the judges to resolve the matter.”

Long-running dispute

The two-page show cause order is the latest incidence of the circuit court bringing similar complaints to the forefront of city government, highlighting problems with conditions at the courthouse.

“[I]t appears to the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, from the reports of persons appointed to examine the following court facilities, and otherwise, that the John Marshall Courts Building … is insecure, out of repair, and otherwise poses a danger to the health, welfare, and safety of court employees and the public,” McClenney’s show cause order stated.

In October 2021, inspectors with the Virginia Department of General Services Division of Engineering and Buildings found the John Marshall Courts Building was not compliant with state code.

While that sparked the latest push for courthouse updates, the original letter from the circuit judges noted that the city sought proposals from architects in the 1990s to update the building and that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security found numerous security and construction deficiencies in 2018.

McClenney spoke to city council in March 2025 about the building’s conditions, outlining concerns about the courthouse and highlighting the issues with the building date back decades.

“I’m not casting aspersions, but to be clear, this has been ongoing since 1994,” McClenney told City Council.

Courthouse conditions

As a Richmond attorney, Sands Anderson shareholder Cullen Seltzer said he has been to the John Marshall Courts Building since the original 2025 letter from the judges.

“I have not noticed significant changes visible to the public, although I appreciate that many of the concerns the judges of the court have are with systems and technology that relate to the court’s infrastructure, safety and security, and I appreciate that much of that is not something regular court users would see,” Seltzer said.

While the show cause order does not go into explicit detail beyond general claims of safety and security threats, the court has in the past documented issues with the 51-year-old building.

Constructed on North Ninth Street in downtown Richmond, the John Marshall Courts Building sits adjacent to the historic home of its namesake, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.

The building was designed as a neutral backdrop for Marshall’s historic home, featuring an all-glass façade around it. McClenney said to City Council in 2025 that the glass exterior to the box-shaped courts building poses a security risk.

“The building’s façade, as you well know, is glass – all glass – exposing occupants to the streets and creating risks of outside urgent and emergent issues,” McClenney said.

The building also lacks electronic locks on all doors and sufficient interior circuit court cameras.

Additional issues previously documented by the court include water leaks both from a worn roof and faulty plumbing that McClenney told city council causes “almost daily” plumbing issues and sewage leaks onto courthouse carpets.

The judges have also said the building lacks accessibility for people with disabilities.

Former Virginia State Bar President Stephanie E. Grana, a partner at Cantor Grana Buckner Bucci, told Virginia Lawyers Weekly in 2025 that she had similar concerns about the building. “In my experience, handicapped [people] and clients who use a wheelchair have had a very difficult time using the bathrooms on the second and third floors of the John Marshall Courts Building,” Grana said.

Space concerns also exist within the court building, which houses most of the city’s judicial branch, including the circuit and general district courts.

Notably, Jewett told City Council in 2025 that many areas in the courthouse lack separation between public and private areas.

“The sheriff has to sometimes transport inmates, particularly if they are women inmates or juvenile inmates, through the judges’ private quarters,” Jewett said.

What’s next?

The City of Richmond has budgeted $15.6 million for “John Marshall Courts Building Renovation/Replacement” in its proposed budget for 2027.

Per the budget, the building “has reached the end of its useful life cycle and has substantial deferred maintenance and physical security issues.”

Specific budgeted improvements include upgrades to the security system, energy conservation retrofits, improvements to make the building more ADA compliant and updates to the plumbing system.

The budget item marks the latest update in a fiscal tug-of-war dating to 2021, when the city formed a committee to oversee a proposed project for an entirely new building at the site. That project, projected to cost approximately $300 million, remains pending on the city’s website.

In 2024, officials raised concerns about the price tag for the new building, effectively pausing the development. The current budget favors renovation rather than replacement but retains language referring to a possible building replacement.

As for the legal filing, the Richmond Circuit Court judges were recused from presiding over the case. The Supreme Court of Virginia tapped Petersburg Circuit Court Judge Ray P. Lupold III to handle the case last month.

Richmond City Council is expected to have a list of candidates for appointments to the panel by June 15.